Empty:Five Minute Friday

What a fun week it's been and it's already time to link up again!
That's right. We're linking up with Kate Motaung for the Five Minute Friday prompt.
This week the word is "Empty".

Go!

Last week's prompt was "enough". I centered around the thought that we are lacking something and aren't enough to fill it.
That ties in so well to the "empty" thought.

But you know? God doesn't have room to fill jars of clay with His presence when they're too full of themselves for Him. :)
Sometimes it is the breaking, the cracking of our clay pots that allows the self to drain out and the empty that is so uncomfortable begins to make way for the King of Kings and Lord of Lords to sit in the throne.

Oh self, why do you constantly creep back up to that throne and try to sit on it? You're really not the right size or shape to sit on the throne, but you keep trying and my Jesus is a gentleman. He could squish you easily, but He won't. He'll patiently wait for you to move out of His way.

I wish I could teach you to stay in your place. Seated at His right hand, you're in His favor, allowing Him to lead, to rule, and to reign.

Oh but the hope we have, that nobody else has!! When they feel empty, there is nothing to take it away. All substitutes leave them longing for something that is out of reach.

I'm linking a YouTube video of a song that I composed this Wednesday at school with our youngest kids at chapel. https://youtu.be/o4QibA5jGDI
At school I was strumming a guitar and telling them the Easter story (without revealing that I was telling them that specific story), and then the song just came bubbling out. They began to sing it with me, so we sang it a few times.
The lyrics are simple. So is the melody, and well, so are the chords. You could easily be a musician with this one!! G, C, D, G, E, C, D, G. Yep. That's it. Feel free to raise or lower the key.

I hope you'll recognize that the empty place is a gift and an invitation for fresh, living water. We can become filled with stale water and if we don't get it out, it doesn't benefit us OR the others around us. We need those mercies renewed every morning!! :)

Blessings on you this Resurrection Weekend!!
Love,
Tammy

P.S. Please tell me your linkup # or your url in the comments so I can find you! :)

Enough: Five Minute Friday

Our weekly linkup is never a disappointment. For more fun than you can possibly handle, and to meet the most amazing community of deep and caring writers, join us at Kate's linkup every week for a five minute free-write with no edits on a one word prompt.

This week's word prompt?
Enough.

I'm experiencing a deja vu. I am certain that this was already the prompt recently, but I have looked and it's just not so.
What can this mean, other than I have been mediating on this very word and it's finally time to write my thoughts.

This has been a struggle for most of my life. The world tells us that we are not complete. That we lack something. That we are not enough.

It's clever, really. Because it is the truth to say that we are not complete. But the world offers us multiple ways to feel complete that do not satisfy that hole that only Jesus can fill.

The truth is, that our best is good enough for Him. He wants all we have to offer and THAT is enough.

Our strivings and righteous deeds don't add to our salvation, nor do our mistakes and sins take away from it. It is finished.

I must admit as I think about Easter coming up in one week, that I have spent most of my life trying to be good enough for God to love me. To be worthy of Jesus' sacrifice. It's exhausted me at times when I am in a puddle of tears looking at my failures.

I'm so hard on myself because how can a Holy God love such wretched beings as us?

And yet, the Bible promises us that "as far as the East is from the West, so far has he taken our sin from us." And "while we were yet sinners, Christ Jesus died for us." (Romans 5:8)

(Psalm 103:11-13, "For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
    so great is his love for those who fear him;
¹² as far as the east is from the west,
    so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

¹³ As a father has compassion on his children,
    so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him;)

Is God's love enough for you? Will you believe that He has redeemed you?
Will you allow His redemption and grace to cover you so that you are no longer feeling guilty and ashamed, but you will rejoice in His promise to make His mercies new every morning??

-Tammy

(p.s. please leave me your linkup number or URL in the comments so I can find your post and return the blessing!)